Robinson Gardens notes

Robinson Gardens

Robinson Gardens features music composed for my first MIDI sound module, as do all the CDs prior to Hamoa.

Aqaba is one of a handful of works from 1994 which uses an exotic tuning. Here I was influenced by Jihad Racy, a leading Arabic composer, performer and scholar, who introduced me to Arabic tunings. (This direction was explored more thoroughly beginning with Hamoa in 1995.) Aqaba's melodic voice passes through a variety of keyboard timbres.

Tumult represents my first multi-movement composition for computer and sound module. It was prophetically inspired by an Indian tabla rhythm I happened to hear on the car radio. In the early stages of the piece, I learned that the son of one of my teachers, who had been a classmate of mine, committed suicide, and this tragedy determined the title, and also the content of the music to a large degree.

Istanbul is a colorful blend of exuberant ostinatos combined with a playful synthesizer voice.

Sun Dance was inspired by African rhythms, and uses a wide range of instrumental colors, with a vibraphone serving as the main melodic voice.

Robinson Gardens was named in response to the large estates with magnificent gardens found close to my home in Beverly Hills. It occurred to me that m own personal gardens are my music; thus the title. The first movement features slow keyboard music, very much like an alap. The second movement was inspired by Bruckner's Ninth Symphony. It combines energetic pizzicato strings with a penetrating clavichord. A movement purely for non-pitched percussion follows. The piece ends with music for acoustic guitar and a variety of ethnic percussion ostinatos.

The music on this recording was composed between 1991 and 1994.

- Michael Robinson, December 1999, Lahaina